


A Cross to Carry

by little-jar (VanimaSpot)



Series: The four brothers [2]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies), Mission: Impossible (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Deaf Clint Barton, M/M, Pre-Avengers (2012), Pre-Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-04
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-10 22:32:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11701203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VanimaSpot/pseuds/little-jar
Summary: When Clint started working on Cross Technological Enterprise, he thought things would get better. He never thought he would find the love of his life.But first, everything goes to shit and he ends up deaf.





	A Cross to Carry

_2002_

After the circus mess (and a year of recovering), they try to do something useful. James offers them a job with some agency but Clint does not want to get involved in a spy´s life. He says to his brother that it is messy, a lot of paper work and you never find love. He is done with bad guys at the moment. James doesn't argue against that. So, Clint starts looking for a job in the papers. He ends up finding a job as Head of Security in Cross Technological Enterprises. And what better way to ensure they hire him that to break in the place and talk with the boss. Right?

"Who are you?"

Clint is sitting in the boss' office, with his feet on top of the desk and his bow in his lap. Twenty minutes before he was knocking out some guards and now Mr. Cross is looking at him from the door of his office. Looking very cross.

"I am here for the security job."

"So, you are not the one who has been breaking in the pass month?"- the man blurts without thinking.

"If I were, do you think I will still be sitting here?"

After that, Darren Cross interviews him and asks him for a demonstration of his abilities. Apparently he sees something he likes because he hires Clint. They give him different types of arrows. Which is fairly amazing and terrifying at the same time, because how they get this type of weapons? He doesn´t ask much, he just want to do his job even when something inside him says everything is wrong. He thinks he is still touchy about the circus.

He goes back to his and Will´s apartment and tells his brother about his new job. They go out to celebrate. The dinner is good but something bothers Clint. He tells Will about it. They both feel like someone is watching them. At the end of the night, they still feel it but nothing happens. They made it to their apartment and the feeling goes away.

"Keep an eye open. I hope they are not stupid enough to enter the apartment."- Will tells him, before going to sleep.

The next morning they are in one piece, which unsettles them a bit. They keep feeling that they are been watched but nothing happens to them. When they talk about it, Clint is the one that feels it the most. Even when he goes to work, when he helps an old lady to cross the street and even when he pulls a cat down of a tree. The twins stay vigilant for over two weeks waiting for something to happen but the feeling goes away.

Three weeks later, the person who has been breaking in the Cross company does so again. Clint is going back in from his outside round when he hears the alarms blaring. He runs inside the place and asks for details. They say the man is going to the roof. Clint goes up too. When he is on the roof, he chooses an arrow with a rope connected to his quiver. The man is running on the roof in front of him. Clint aims with his bow, takes a deep breath, lets it out and shoots. The arrow goes straight into the man legs, trapping them with the rope and making him stumble. Clint pulls and the man can't get up. He gets in the other building and starts pulling at the rope, dragging the man with it.

"I caught something, and it is heavy."-Clint starts saying, getting near the man- "What could it be?"

The man just huffs and lets himself been dragged. When Clint is hovering above him they just stop and watch each other. The man on the floor crosses his hands in his chest and lifts an eyebrow, impassiveness in his face.

"Hello, Clint. I presume. Or is it Will? I still can´t take you apart."

"How do you know our names?"- he frowns at the man, trying not to tense.

"I was just doing my recon. And I haven´t tried to escape because I know you can help me stop Cross."

Clint was going to ask more but the rest of security come into the roof, taking the man with them. He asks where they are taking him and everything they said sounded like a lie. Clint didn’t like that much. The thing the man said were bugging him, so he started looking into it himself. He decides to investigate on his own and enters places he was told not to.

He finds the blueprints of a castle in the basement of the company, but looking with more detail he sees some changes in it. It seems like a school. Reading more he finds out it is the Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Students. Before he can think how cool that is the guards enter the room, guns pointing at him. He put his hands up in surrender.

"Would you believe me if I said I was looking for the bathroom?"

-.-.-.-.-

He is tossed into a room, were he lands face first. He turns to say something witty at the guard on the door but he closed it before he could open his mouth. He huffs and gets up, cleaning the dirt from his clothes.

"Good to see you again."

In front of him the man from last night was covered in bruises and cuts but has a genuine smile on.

"So… what´s Cross is going to do with the mutants?"

Clint sees surprise in the man´s face. He seats near the man, leaning into one of the walls. He notices that the room has four solid walls, without windows. The roof is made of glass but it shows more ceiling. In one of the corners there is a camera. Nothing more.

"I am not stupid, I know they exist. I know some of them."

The man arches a brow and Clint shrugs, adjusting his position a little. 

"He is making a weapon to use against the students. We really don´t know what will the weapon do."-the man says after a while.

"So, you are here to find what he is going to do or steal the weapon?"

"If it is very dangerous, steal it."

"Are you MI6, CIA or IMF?"

The man looks at him and snorts.

"They are the only agencies I know of. That are real, that´s it."- Clint shrugged.

Before the man can say anything else, they hear static and a voice coming from speakers in the room.

"If you are so adamant of knowing about the weapon, it uses sonic waves to affect humans' behavior."-Cross voice says- "Now, let's do a demonstration."

They started hearing more static, getting louder every second. Both of them tried to cover their ears but the noise was so high that it became a migraine. Then it went away, letting them feeling dizzy and numb.

"Fight."

Clint felt his body moving the moment he laid eyes at the other man. He felt his body wanting to do something and he left him. In less than a minute both of them were fighting against each other. Throwing fists and kicks. The man was very good, trained, not a match for Clint. Before the man could do more damage, the dizziness went away and they both dropped to the floor.

"Apparently it works. That's good."- said Cross, now looking down at them from the glass roof.

When Clint felt the static again, he searched for something that might help. He found in one of his pockets an arrow head. He took it out and saw it was one of the sonic heads. Without thinking, he puts it between his teeth and detonates it. Pain goes from his mouth to his head but this time he controls his actions. He looks up and sees the man go in his direction. They start fighting again. Clint dodges most of the hits, waiting for the right moment. When it comes, he hits the man in the head and watches him drop into the floor. Once he sees that he doesn’t moves, Clint collapses at his side.

Sometime later he fells someone get near him, when Clint feels himself being lifted from the floor, he leaves his eyes closed. After a while, he opens a bit his eyes and sees that he is in the shoulder of one of the guards. At his right, the other guard has the unconscious man in his shoulders. Looking down, he sees a gun peaking from the man´s back pocket. _Idiot_. Clint takes the gun carefully and hits the man that is carrying him straight to the neck, making him go limp. When he touches the floor, he turns and shoots the other guard in the leg and hits him with the gun, taking him out too. Clint reaches for the agent and puts him carefully in the floor. He seeks for a heartbeat and sighs grateful when he finds one.

He looks around and finds out that he is not that far away from where Cross was. He goes back and finds the room he was minutes ago, then near the door he finds stairs and goes up. In the room, with glass floor now, is almost empty. In a corner there is a desk, with a device on top of it. He gets near the desk and sees paper in the desk too. He reaches into his sock and finds his lighter. _Idiots_ , he thinks again. Clint takes a page and lights it on. Afterwards, he throws it in the desks and sees how everything starts catching fire, even the device.

Clint feels a hand on his shoulder, in instinct he turns and aims the guns at the person behind him. He observes the man put his hands up in defense and take a step back. He sees him moving his lips but doesn't understand him. Clint lowers the gun and frowns at the man´s lip. The agent in front of him realizes Clint can´t hear him, so he looks at his head and getting near him again he reaches to touch Clint´s neck. He withdraws his hand and both of them look at the blood in the man´s hand. He cleans it in his shirt and points at the door, Clint nods and they get out. It was getting hot in there, literally.

When they are out the building, Clint sees black cars getting near the place. Before they reach the street, the man stops and turns to look at Clint. He points at himself with his right hand, then makes a hook with both his pointer fingers and hooks them with each other. First, right hand on left and after that left on right.

**_Friend._ **

Good thing he learned a bit of ASL before this. He nods when the agent repeats the sign. They wait for the cars to get near them. The man gives some directions to the agents after they get out of the car and leave them to go inside the building. He turns to Clint and pulls him to one of the cars, putting him in the back seat. He gets a cell phone from the front and types something in it, giving it to Clint after.

**I am Agent Phil Coulson from SHIELD, nice to meet you.**

**I am Clint Brandt, now unemployed. Same.**

Clint sees the man laugh when he reads his message. Pity he can't hear him laugh. A nice face surely has a nice laugh.

**I am going to look at your wounds, ok?**

He nods and lets Coulson look after him. Five minutes later, he feels something at his right. When he looks that way, he sees his brother going in his direction. He sees him talking (maybe yelling, because of how red he is now) while he approaches the car. The agent looks a bit awkward, looking between the twins. He looks at the agent saying something to his brother and Will´s anger fading away. Will nods at the man and comes near, taking Clint hands between his. He closes his eyes and clenches his hand a bit. Clint does the same.

_"You are an idiot. Did you know that?"_

_"Says the agent in training."_

_"I am applying to do desk job, you trouble maker."_

_"Whatever you say."_

_"What did you do?"_

_"Later."_

_"Fine."_

_"I think agent Coulson is looking at us funny."_

_"You think?"_

They both open their eyes at the same time and smirk at each other. They look at the agent and surely he is looking at them funny. They laugh, Clint knows because he can feel it even if he can't hear it. Will talks with the agent a bit, accepting the business card when the man gives it to him. They say their goodbyes to Coulson when the rest of agents start coming out from the building. They walk to their apartment together. Thankfully is late and the apartment is close, so nobody sees the state Clint is.

-.-.-.-.-

The next morning, Clint wakes up with the smell of coffee and bacon. In the table, Will explains to him that the day before Agent Coulson offered them medical help and he was going to come for them later that day. Will teases him about finding the agent handsome. _Stupid twin connection_.

Coulson gets them inside one of S.H.I.E.L.D's installations. He shows Will that he can get in with his ID from the IMF, but just as a guest and can only go to certain places. Clint feels how his twin thinks that as a challenge. They get to the medical area, where Clint has to follow a nurse and leave behind his bother and the agent.

"I didn’t know the IMF got orphans to be agents."

Will tries really hard not to flinch at that. The man was clearly looking for more information about them. He knew there was so little information out there about them, thanks to James.

"I am not familiar with the agency recruitment program. They asked, I just said yes."

"Why did you accept?"

"Because it seems fun."

"I see." "Either way, we wanted to ask your brother to be part of the agency. What do you think?"

Will arched a brow at him, and then smiled mischievously.

"If you ask him nicely, he might consider it."

He sees the agent get a little pink. Before he can say something else, he feels a pinch inside his head. He sways a little, then he feels Coulson grabbing his elbow to help him stand. Will bats his hand away and goes in the direction he last saw his brother. Without thinking he enters the room and finds Clint on a bed, covering his ears with his hands. Will goes directly between the doctor and his twin. He glowers at the doctor, who looks at him surprised. He sees the doctor start talking but no sound comes out of his mouth. He jumps when he feels a hand touch his shoulder and flinches away, closer to Clint.

Coulson is at his side, he didn’t hear him enter the room nor can he hear what he is saying. The agent understands what´s going on when he sees the panicked look in Will´s face. Coulson says something to the doctor, who takes a few steps back, then walks in front of the twins and stays there. He moves his hands in a placating motion. Will just nods and hears his brother say:

_That fucking hurt._

While the agent gets a pen and a pad from the desk, Will feels Clint take his hand and squeeze. Will wants to look at him but he doesn’t take his sight away from the other two in front of him. He sees Coulson write something in the pad and then shows it to him.

**He is all right, the doctor was just taking a look and without wanting to touched a nerve.**

  1. **Can't you hear us?**
  2. **Do you have a connection with your brother?**



Will read it, then signed with his index finger the number one and nodded, then pinched his fingers to say a "little". Signed the number two and nodded again. Until that moment he heard nothing, but when the agent and doctor started talking he heard murmurs. He turned to look at Clint and saw a bit of blood trailing from his left ear. He took a napkin from the table and cleaned it. Clint smiled at him, and still grabbing his hand, squeezed again.

_Are you all right?_

_Yeah. Just can't hear anything._

Clint frowns.

_Don’t worry, I am starting to hear again. Just some whispers._

_And I still can't hear anything. Lucky you._

Clint looks at his left and Will follows his sight. Coulson is looking at them now, still a few feet away from them. When he has their attention he turns the pad.

**We won't try anything further. We don’t know how your connection works and how it will be affected by what we are going to do. It is up to you.**

The twins look at each other and talk for a bit. At the end, they decide to accept their help and they explain how their connection works. Three hours later they come out of surgery. Half an hour later Will can hear again but Clint still can't. They healed everything they could but after a week of rest, Clint needs to use hearing aids.

Two weeks later, Clint starts the process to become an S.H.I.E.L.D agent.

If a month later agent Coulson comes to his apartment and finds a note saying that _if something happens to the twins because of him, you better run_. Well, he is the only one who knows the reason why he changed apartment. Years later, he won't be surprised when he finds out the twins have an older brother.

 


End file.
